Aizawl, Apr 7 : Aizawl district is far ahead of the rest of the seven districts of Mizoram in terms of human density with 37.03 per cent of the state's population living in the state capital district, according to provisional report of Census 2011 released here today.

According to the census, 404,054 of the state’s population of 1,091,014 are living in Aizawl district, recording a density of 113 persons per square kilometre, as against the state’s average density of 52 people per square kilometre. More than half of the district’s population is concentrated in Aizawl city.

According to 2001 Census, 325,676 people were living in Aizawl district, which was 36.65 per cent of the state’s population.

Aizawl district registered a growth rate of 24.07 per cent during 2001-2011, compared to 38.07 per cent growth rate during 1991-2001.

The district witnessed decline in growth rate since 1971, from 68.30 per cent in 1971-1981 to 58.73 per cent in 1981-1991, according to the census.

The entire Mizoram was a district council under Assam government before 1972 and there was no district-wise statistics prior to that.

Saiha district, the southernmost part of the state bordering Myanmar, has the lowest population with 56366 people living in it, which is 5.17 per cent of the state’s population. The density in Saiha district is 40 persons per square kilometre.

In terms of density, Mamit, which has a population of 85757 (7.85pc of the state’s population), is the lowest with 28 people per square kilometre.

Giving highlights of Census 2011 for Mizoram, state director of census operations Mizoram, H P Sahu, stated that '' the percentage decadal variation in population of the state from 1901 to 2011 fluctuated between the lowest percentage of 7.9 during 1911-1921 and highest percentage of 48.55 during 1971-1981.'' '' The decadal growth rate continuously decreased from 1981-1991 till 2001-2011,'' Sahu told reporters.

Notably, Mamit district which borders Bangladesh, Tripura and Assam, registered a growth rate of 72.40 per cent during 1971-1981, which decreased to 23.57 per cent during 1981-1991. The district recorded a negative growth rate at (-)2.77 percent during 1991-2001, which was apparently due to the exodus of Bru community to Tripura following ethnic conflict with majority Mizos triggered by the killing of a Mizo forest official.

However, the district has seen a 36.59 per cent growth rate during 2001-2011, for which the repatriation of the Bru refugees could be one of the factors.

Aizawl, Lunglei, Lawngtlai and Saiha showed continuous decrease in decadal growth rates during the last four decades, the remaining four districts Serchhip, Kolasib, Lunglei and Mamit witnessed fluctuated growth rate in every census, Sahu informed.

According to the Census 2011, the sex ratio of Mizoram is 975, which is a significant increase from 935 in the previous census.

Sahu highlighted that since 1901 to 1961, Mizoram’s sex ratio crossed the 1000 mark varying from the highest at 113 in 1901 to the lowest at 1009 in 1961 and continued to decline during these decades. From the year 1961, the sex ratio of Mizoram declined to 946 in 1971 and 919 in 1981.

However, from Census 1991, the number of females per 1000 males has continuously increased till 2011, he said.

In the Census 2011, all the eight districts have crossed 1000 mark in sex ratio the highest being Aizawl with 1009 females per 1000 males. The lowest is Mamit district with 924 females per 1000 males.